Automatic door seal



Jan. 22, 1963 J. J. DWYER'-, JR.,- ETAL 3,075,061

AUTOMATIC DOOR SEAL Filed Jan. zelo;y 1960 JMA/kom 3,075,061 AUTOMATIC DOOR SEAL John J. Dwyer, Jr., Wauwatosa, and William H. Laue,

Milwaukee, Wis., assignors to Allis-Chalmers Manufacturing Company, Milwaukee, Wis.

Filed Jan. 20, 1960, Ser. No. 3,665 1 Claim. (Cl. 200-168) The present invention relates to an adjustable seal for a protruding portion of an enclosed compartment and more particularly to automatic variable sized panel door seals for use with an enclosed circuit breaker having a portion protruding outside of it.

The interruption of high power currents is hazardous and requires exacting conditions for safe interruption. The current interrupting industry has therefore constantly searched for improved structures for enclosing circuit breakers to protect them from the outside elements. One of the problems of enclosing a circuit breaker stems from the fact that its control head has at least two positions that it must be moved to, these being the inserted and withdrawn positions. The end of the control head of the prior art breakers usually had to project outside of the switchs enclosure to be in withdrawn position. Consequently, most of the prior art circuit breaker enclosing panels had to be opened to enable the switch to be moved to its withdrawn position. This was disadvantageous since dust and other particles were not prevented from going into the circuit breaker cubicle when the circuit breaker was in its withdrawn position. Also, the opened panel structures obstructed the aisles where the circuit breakers were located.

There therefore existed a need for some type of shielding and sealing means which could protect the inside of the enclosure from the outside elements and enable a control head to project through the switchgear panel without opening a panel compartment door.

The prior art teaches a circuit breaker having this feature. The circuit breaker has a door panel with an opening that enables the control head of the breaker to project outside of it when the breaker is in its Withdrawn position. A sealing escutcheon, which is fixedly attached around the periphery of the control head, is employed in cooperation with a movable escutcheon to seal the enclosed portion of the breaker from the atmosphere. The disadvantage of such a structure is that the size of its opening is -nonadj'ustable and therefore cannot be interchanged with different sized control heads. That is, each seal must have its opening sized to conform with the control head which it is to seal. Because of its fixed size, very close tolerances must be held in manufacturing such seals. Also, the seals, being fxedly attached to the control head, are added weight to the control headthereby making it more ditiicult to move the head.

Therefore the object of this invention is to provide a new and improved automatic seal that conforms to a portion which projects outside of an enclosed compartment.

Further, it is an object of this invention to provide an improved means for sealing the opening for a protruding control head of a circuit breaker, in order to prevent the entrance of dust or the emission of hard gases therethrough.

Still further, it is an object of this invention to provide Ia novel panel door seal for a circuit breaker which will allow movement of a breaker between inserted and with- `drawn position when the panel is closed.

Also, it is an object to provide a door seal which will enable opening of the panel door while the breaker is in the connected or disconnected position with the protruding portion thereof going through the panel door seal.

Still another object is to provide a seal for the protruding control head of a circuit breaker which does not add any weight to the control head.

The foregoing and other objects of the present invention will become clear from the following description and accompanying drawing in which:

FIG. l is an isometric rear view of the panel door seal;

FlG. 2 is a side view of the panel door seal with a portion shown in section which shows the control head of a circuit breaker protruding through the panel door seal;

FIG. 3 is a front view of the panel door seal with the control head of a circuit breaker protruding therethrough;

and

FIG. 4 is an enlarged rear view of the corner of the panel door seal with the control head of a circuit breaker protruding therethrough.

Referring more particularly to the drawing, the seal of this invention is illustrated in combination with an enclosed circuit breaker. It is a variable sized seal that has a plurality of shields disposed around a portion projecting out of an opening of an enclosed compartment.

This seal m.y comprise any number of shields depending on the size and shape of the object to be sealed. The

shields are disposed around the periphery of the projecting portion and are biased thereagainst so that the sealing edges of the shields conform to the shape of the projecting portion to seal the compartment from the atmosphere. In the preferred embodiment the enclosing compartment is shown as a circuit breaker cubicle 10 having a panel door 11 with an opening 12, and the projecting portion is shown as a projecting control head 13 of a circuit breaker 14. The seal 18 preferably has four straight 'shields 19 which correspond to the straight sides of the protruding control head. The shields are adjustably connected to the cubicle panel door 11 of the circuit breaker 14 and are disposed aro-und the opening 12 adjacent to the sides 20 of the control head. The shields 19 are biased toward the control head 13, to seal the circuit breaker 14 from the atmosphere. The sealing portions of the shields 19 may be any well known type of sealing means such as the heel 17 of bent portion 21 that extends longitudinally along the bent line of the shields.

The opening 12 in the cubicle panel door 11 has a vlarger area than the transverse cross section of the projecting control head 13 of the circuit breaker 14. The four shields 19 are mounted and disposed on the inside of the panel door 11 over the edges of the opening 12 and in their retracted position they define an opening 23 large enough for the control head 13 of the circuit breaker 14 to protrude therethrough. The shields 19 have a slot 22 at each end and are disposed with each slot perpendicular to the surface of the control head engaged by each shield. The slots overlap and are perpendicular to a slot in an adjacent shield so that a fastening means 26 can extend through both shields to hold them together and still enable the shields to have freedom to move to- ;Ward and away from the surface of the protruding control va guide to the protruding control head portion 13 of the breaker 14 so that the door seal 18 is automatically :aligned with it.

Biasing means such as lock springs 25 are provided to urge the shields 19 into sealing relationship with the control head 13. As shown in FIGS. l and 4, they can be connected to the ends of the shields 19 in order that the Yadrenal 'heels 1"]1V ofthe bent portions 21 are biased against the breaker 14 comes in contactwith the panel door seal 18,

the-opening dened by the shields 19 Will be enlarged becauseof the shields?. 19 adjustability yet the shields will becaused to conformto, the control headl due to the biasing action ofthe lock springs 25.

Asv said before, fastening, means hold the shields of the doorv seal together and against the panel. Any well knownfastening means may berused, however, Weld studs and nuts 26 are used in this embodiment. Thus, as long as .the bent portions 21 ofthe shields 19 are biasedagainst thecontrol head 13 .of the circuit breaker 14 the portion ofthe circuit breaker which ris inside of the` cubicle 10 is sealed fromthe outsidethereby. producing a very safe condition. v

Although but one embodiment of the present invention hasbeen illustrated and described, it ywill be apparent l breaker comprising: an enclosure having a panel door,

said door having an aperture formed therein, a circuit breaker positioned in said enclosure and having a memer of predetermined cross section protruding through said aperture, a plurality of shields each having a bent portion and being disposed to form an opening therebetween With the heels of said bent portions, said shields each having slots located at their ends and being disposed with the slots of adjacent shields overlapping each other, fastening means inserted through said overlapping slot portions and into said `door to connect said Ashields to said door, said shields being arranged so that the heels means beingy arranged to apply a uniform, substantially equal force on adjacent shields to bias said heels intoa uniform ksealing relationship lwith said member.

References Cited in the le of this patent rUNITED STATES PATENTS f 1,206,607 vSpeck Nov. 28, 1916 1,973,210 Hufnail et al. Sept. 11, 1934 2,248,719 owen July s, 1941 2,290,516 Willman July 21, 1942 2,467,307 1949 Hmrnerly Apr. l2, 

